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Signs of life in Cleveland

Flacco should help spark league's lowest-scoring offense

With Joe Flacco signing with the Browns, I feel a lot better about their offense perhaps not being a total dumpster fire. As history has shown us over and over and over, there’s what you expect to happen, and then there’s the results of how it actually plays out.

Of the last 20 teams that have finished last in scoring, only four of those teams came back the next season and again ranked in the bottom-5 in points. An equal number of those teams moved all the way up into the top 10 in scoring.

I’m not suggesting Flacco will be directing a top-10 offense, but I expect they’ll be plucky at times. Prior to scoring a league-low 27 touchdowns last year, Cleveland’s offense scored 41, 38 and 39 touchdowns in its previous three seasons. If we split the difference and put them at 33 touchdowns, that seems fair.

I expect Flacco will be gunning it at times, with Jerry Jeudy catching a lot of balls and David Njoku (pictured) heavily involved. When Njoku played five games with Flacco two years ago, he caught 37 passes and 4 TDs. He’s a legit tight end.

Below see the rundown of offenses that have ranked last in scoring in the 32-team era. Of the last 20, only half finished in the bottom 10 in scoring again the next year.

OFFENSES RANKING LAST IN SCORING
YearTeamAvgNextRk
2002Houston13.315.928
2003Arizona14.117.826
2004Chicago14.416.326t
2005Cleveland14.514.930
2006Oakland10.517.723
2007San Francisco13.721.222
2008Cincinnati12.819.122
2009St. Louis10.918.126t
2010Carolina12.325.45t
2011St. Louis12.118.725
2012Kansas City13.226.96t
2013Jacksonville15.415.632
2014Jacksonville15.623.514
2015San Francisco14.919.327
2016LA Rams14.029.91
2017Cleveland14.622.420
2018Arizona14.122.616t
2019Washington16.620.925
2020NY Jets15.218.228
2021Jacksonville14.923.810
2022Denver16.921.019
2023Carolina (tie)13.920.123
2023New England (tie)13.917.030
2024Cleveland15.2??

—Ian Allan

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